"A team led by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Public Health has found that the 'superbug' methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is prevalent at several U.S. wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs)."

"MRSA is well known for causing difficult-to-treat and potentially fatal bacterial infections in hospital patients, but since the late 1990s it has also been infecting otherwise healthy people in community settings.

'MRSA infections acquired outside of hospital settings--known as community-acquired MRSA or CA-MRSA--are on the rise and can be just as severe as hospital-acquired MRSA. However, we still do not fully understand the potential environmental sources of MRSA or how people in the community come in contact with this microorganism,' says Amy R. Sapkota, assistant professor in the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health and research study leader.

'This was the first study to investigate U.S. wastewater as a potential environmental reservoir of MRSA.'"